After nearly eight months of the outbreak of violence in Manipur on 3 May, the dictum: ‘the more things change, the more they remain the same’ continues to hold true.
With the benefit of hindsight, it becomes apparent that although the initial spark stems from the violent reprisal to the peaceful protest by tribal groups including Naga and Kuki-Zomi against the Manipur’s High Court directive to the state government to secure Scheduled Tribe (ST) recognition to the Meiteis, this conflict continues to pivot around contestations over control and access to tribal land and resources.
These contestations to control and have access to tribal land and resources began to take concrete shape a year after Jubilant Energy, the Netherlands-based oil and gas company, entered into a Petroleum Exploration License agreement with the Government of India in 2010.
The subsequent identification of 17 out of the 32 natural gas fields of the state in two Kuki-Zomi dominated areas of Lamka (Churachandpur) and Pherzawl districts and the discovery that they sit on the fertile Assam-Arakan basin whipped up the greed and passion of segments of the Meitei economic and political entrepreneurial class who overtime resort to integrationist and majoritarian agenda to actualize their ‘greed’ and reinforce their ‘relative deprivation’ vis-à-vis the Kuki-Zomi.